Neujahrskonzert 2020 / New Year's Concert 2020 / Concert du Nouvel An 2020

Editors’ Notes During Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year, his music featured in the New Year’s Concert for the first time—and having just recorded the nine symphonies, Andris Nelsons and the VPO were the perfect people to perform it. A handful of his contredanses are supplemented by Johann II’s “Seid umschlungen, Millionen!” waltz, which takes its title from the same Schiller text that inspired Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Hans Christian Lumbye’s “Postillon Galop” gives Nelsons the opportunity to pick up his trumpet. Otherwise it’s Hellmesberger, Suppé, and the Strausses all the way, done with terrific verve—and the “Radetzky-Marsch” even gets a makeover this year.